In Honor of the dead
The people of old believed that rain came from God's tears. Today, Chloe actually believed it. In a city that never rains the water fell from the heavens constantly but calmly for the past three days.
They were standing in the middle of the forest were Lucifer admitted to have buried his brother. Now, he had come back to bury a sister or was it a daughter
He had come to bury another part of himself
The coffin was shining black, covered with white lilies. There was no priest, just them: Dan, Trixie, Linda, Ella, Charlotte, Chloe, Amenadiel and Lucifer.
The devil held the accordion in his arms, silent and dead … like its owner.
"Are the other angels here?" Trixie asked sniffing.
"They are waiting for her back at home." Amenadiel said. Lucifer glared at him but said nothing. He refused to use an umbrella and stood by Chloe soaking wet.
"Should we say a few words, a prayer…?" Dan asked.
"Silence" Lucifer said louder than a simple reply but not loud enough to be an angry remark. "She wanted silence, lets just give her that." he added and pushed the coffin into the hole. Amenadiel and Daniel reached for it a moment before the lid fell. They lowered it into the hole and Lucifer threw the damn accordion in it too. They all stood there, silent, for a whole minute.
Lucifer threw his extremely expensive jacket on the ground and rolled his sleeves up. He grabbed a shovel and just started filling up the grave. Amenadiel looked around but there was only one shovel.
"Lucifer, where are the rest of the shovels?" Amenadiel asked but he got no answer.
"Luci… don't…"
"Don't what, brother?"
"Don't take the blame" Amenadiel said.
"oh, hahaha" sad, bitter laugh. "Was not me that caused the death of a thousand angels? Do not pretend to not blame me! I killed Uriel, I! I knew exactly what Azrael's blade would do and yet I did it, i plunged the bloody knife into his heart with this hand. With this hand I buried him." Lucifer said shoveling dirt like a madman.
"This is not the same, Jophiel is…"
"GONE!" Lucifer cried with such anger that Trixie hid her face in Chloe's embrace.
"She's gone, Amenadiel! She's bloody gone… I can't feel her anymore." Amenadiel looked at him puzzled.
"What do you mean, feel her?"
Lucifer put the shovel down and just fell on the pile if dirt meant for the grave.
"Did you ever think how I lit the stars? How I made the demons?" Lucifer said. Everyone was looking at him in complete silence. As the devil got a cigarette off his pocket and lit it with an overused lighter, everyone knew this was a being as old as time.
"The act of creation requires intend, will, and that requires a piece of your being." He held the lighter in front of him for all to see.
"I am not the finger who lit the fire, I am the gas who feeds it, every second since the dawn of time. I am the bucket of pain and punishment that feeds the demons. I have been for so long that I rarely feel it but I always know when one of my creations are gone. Much like the noise of an engine you instantly understand it was on only by the silence of it being turned off."
"You don't mean…" Amenadiel did not dare to finish the thought. "But she was mortal and the knife was just…Father" that set Lucifer off in a feat of maniac laughter. Linda pulled Ella and Dan indicating it was time for them to leave. It was a moment of grief between brothers. Dan extended his hand to Trixie but she just held onto Chloe tighter. "I want to stay with Lucifer. He is sad." How to explain that her goofy friend could be seriously dangerous right now? Chloe had felt first hand Lucifer's dark nature. He could be very cruel and violent… Hell, he could terrorize a man to madness.
But then he had brought her soup when they were still not talking and he had held her keys when she had been unfit to drive.
"I am not leaving" Trixie made it clear. Chloe told Dan to leave , leaving her, Trixie and Amenadiel with Lucifer.
"The moment I realized it I wanted to blame the fucker so much. I still wish I could but I know that it was all her decision." Lucifer said to the lighter. Amenadiel almost asked why, how did he know it but the words echoed in his ears.
She wanted silence. Everlasting silence.
Why would she go back to those who despised her?
Shaking his head he took a handfull of dirt and threw it in the grave. Just like that, he walked away.
Lucifer stayed on the ground, head between his shoulders. He stayed like that for what seemed like eons. Then a smell of sweet sweat, rain and dirt hit his nostrils. He peaked through his hide and saw the child staring at him. Her look was so steady and clear, it took Lucifer aback.
How could there be such innocence still in the world? After all that has happened?
The child extended her hand and touched his cheek. The devil looked at her in awe. In her eyes there was no judgement, no fear for the devil or the scary giant who was screaming a minute ago. There was only understanding and forgiveness.
In an instictual move, he got his wings out and shielded her from the rain. Trixie turned her head ninety degrees watching the dome of white feathers and with no second thought she lounged herself onto him, holding him tight least he left again. This time he returned the hug holding her gently against his chest.
Chloe held her tears. She hadn't felt like this since the day Trixie was born. Like everything was on place and she was ready to fight till the death to keep them safe. She moved her legs slowly, leaving the umbrella behind. She caressed Lucifer's damp hair and lowered her self, settling between his long legs, taking half of Trixie's weight. Lucifer hugged them both close and covered them with his wings protectively.
"She should not be burried away like some…"
"Mortal?" Chloe finished.
"No, like some Jane Doe found in a ditch. No label, no quote. She was born by a firing star." he whispered.
"Fire it is then." Chloe said and flipped the lighter on. Lucifer took the lighter giving the fire a blinding gold colour and threw it inside the grave.
The rain fell and the three of them watched the fire till the first light of the Evening star.